Under the statute, mopeds must be registered. To be registered under Hawaii law a moped must bear a certification label from the manufacturer stating that it complies with federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS). A moped must also possess the following equipment approved by the D.O.T. under Chapter 91: approved braking, fuel, and exhaust system components; approved steering system and handlebars; wheel rims; fenders; a guard or protective covering for drive belts, chains and rotating components; seat or saddle; lamps and reflectors; equipment controls; speedometer; retracting support stand; horn; and identification markings.
Some electric bikes claim to use a neat trick called regenerative braking. If you start pedaling the bicycle or going downhill, the spinning wheels turn the electric motor in the hub in reverse and start charging up the batteries. In practice, regenerative braking is nowhere near as useful on an electric bicycle as it is on an electric train or car. An electric bike has much less mass and velocity than either a train or car, so it never gains (or loses) anything like as much kinetic energy when it starts and stops. You'd have to go down an awful lot of hills to charge up the batteries completely and that's usually not practical. And what's the point in pedaling the wheels simply to charge the battery? You might as well have bought an ordinary bicycle to start with!
In Australia the e-bike is defined by the Australian Vehicle Standards as a bicycle that has an auxiliary motor with a maximum power output not exceeding 200 W without consideration for speed limits or pedal sensors.[1] Each state is responsible for deciding how to treat such a vehicle and currently all states agree that such a vehicle does not require licensing or registration. Various groups are lobbying for an increase in this low limit to encourage more widespread use of e-bikes to assist in mobility, health benefits and to reduce congestion, pollution and road danger. Some states have their own rules such as no riding under electric power on bike paths and through built up areas so riders should view the state laws regarding their use. There is no licence and no registration required for e-bike usage.
Federal law in the United States states that an electric bicycle must have a top speed under 20 mph and a motor which produces less than 750 watts/1 hp. They are not considered motor vehicles by the federal government and are subject to the same consumer safety laws as unassisted bicycles.[11] Their legality on public roads is under state jurisdiction, and varies. See the main Electric bicycle laws article for details on the law in individual states.
Another big upgrade here is the 36V battery. Instead of the 8Ah that the Ancheer had, Rattan has a 10.4Ah battery. The battery actually looks a lot like this one that goes for $190 on ebay or a little more on Amazon. Rattan tells me it is full of genuine LG cells which seem to perform quite well. On cold days, my 15 km (10 mile) very hilly commute would use up about half of the battery (Ancheer would be dying on the way back home). I imagine someone significantly under my 200+lbs could approach the 25 miles Rattan says you can get on throttle alone or up to 50 miles of pedal assist. I’ll just say it was significantly more than the Ancheer.
Urban riding will never be the same, and cars will be in your way when you climb aboard the Specialized Turbo Vado 3.0. The zippy 28mph pedal-assist motor will leave you feeling invincible as you’re ripping along in turbo mode (which adds up to 320 percent of your power output). Although designed with female riders in mind—it comes with a women-specific saddle and grips, and a lower standover—the step-through frame is extremely convenient for anyone who doesn’t want to swing their leg over the back of a saddle while wearing street clothes. Slick, integrated lights, as well as fenders and a rear rack, add to the already-awesome features of this bike to make it the ideal combination of value, performance, and pep.
Eight provinces of Canada allow electric power assisted bicycles. The province of Ontario introduced a three-year trial ending October 2009 for these bicycles. In seven of the eight provinces, e-bikes are limited to 500W output, and cannot travel faster than Template:Convert on motor power alone on level ground. In Alberta the maximum output is 750W, and the max speed is 35 km/h.[12] Age restrictions vary in Canada. All require an approved helmet. Some versions (e.g., if capable of operating without pedaling) of e-bikes require drivers' licenses in some provinces and have age restrictions. Vehicle licenses and liability insurance are not required. E-bikes are required to follow the same traffic regulations as regular bicycles. The rules for bicycles assisted by a gasoline motor or other fuel are not included in the regulations government ebikes. These are classified as motor cycles regardless of the power output of the motor and maximum attainable speed.
Did you know that electric bikes can be used for fitness training? Or that they have been scientifically proven to increase the amount of cycling people do? Or that they have proven health and fitness benefits? Well, it’s all true! Apart from being tons of fun, ebikes can be used to improve health and fitness in many ways. Here are our top posts about how ebikes can improve your health and fitness.
Can I legally buy/build and ride an ebike that’s faster than 20 mph? Yes you can, but you need to know that the ebike is no longer considered equivalent to a bicycle and is subject to other state vehicular classifications. The definitions for electric bikes spanning 20-30mph, and 1-2 horsepower ranges, will vary from state to state, resulting in a no-man’s-land consensus about limits for motor vehicle definition. The common label for a 20-30mph, 2-wheeled vehicle with active pedals is a Moped. Other MVA labels include motor scooter, motorbike and dirt bike which may have equivalent power and speed performance, but do not have pedals to assist and move the vehicle.
On the road, it takes only a few turns of the pedals to activate the Vado’s motor and get it up to speed. In Turbo mode — the bike’s highest level of pedal-assist — the Vado reaches speeds of up to 28 miles per hour, after which the electric drive system automatically shuts off to conserve power (and abide by local law). A built-in LED readout on the handlebars allows riders to monitor battery life, check current speed, and track calories burned while also being able to glance at distance traveled. The Turbo Vado Mission Control app (iOS/Android) also connects to the bike via Bluetooth and allows riders to further tune their ride and adjust the bike’s settings.
Another type of electric assist motor, often referred to as the mid-drive system, is increasing in popularity. With this system, the electric motor is not built into the wheel but is usually mounted near (often under) the bottom bracket shell. In more typical configurations, a cog or wheel on the motor drives a belt or chain that engages with a pulley or sprocket fixed to one of the arms of the bicycle's crankset. Thus the propulsion is provided at the pedals rather than at the wheel, being eventually applied to the wheel via the bicycle's standard drive train.
Seth Miller said he founded the company after his first electric bike was stolen from where it was parked in front of the midtown office building where he worked. The company that manufactured the bike had disbanded, so he started researching different suppliers. He soon discovered that a majority of the e-bikes sold in the US are just cobbled together from a variety of off-the-shelf Chinese-made parts found in a catalog. It sounded simple, so Miller figured he’d try it himself.
The first functioning electric motor was displayed in the early 19th century, though the device constructed by British scientist Michael Faraday did little more than swirl a wire around a magnet when an electric charge was introduced. Still, the concept proved that electricity could do work. Functional electric motors would follow in many forms after that achievement in 1821. Soon scientists and tinkerers around the world, including visionaries such as Nikola Tesla, were experimenting with all manner of electric motors -- some worked with DC power, others with AC. By the end of the century, myriad electric motors had been produced, capable of exerting enough force with enough reliable control that they were practical for use in myriad applications.
This article did a good job of trying to justify the assist speed limits but fell short of detailing how that can ever be effectively enforced. In reality the only enforcement that is going to work is applied speed limits to use of bikes and ebikes. For example, it makes sense that a bike lane on a street that the speed limit of vehicles is the speed limit of the bikes/ebikes. On sidewalks and shared pedestrian paths the speed limit probably does need to be in the 15-20mph range to match traditional bikes speeds on those paths.
Electric bikes are here in a big way. Liberated from some of the normal constraints of standard bike design like weight and gearing, e-bike design has exploded; if you can imagine it, someone has built it. From cargo bikes to city bikes, messenger bikes to mountain bikes, road bikes, folding bikes, and even beach cruisers, there is something for everyone. The beauty of e-bikes is that they make the joy of cycling accessible to so many people in so many ways.
Artwork: Hub motors aren't the only way to power electric bicycle wheels. If you've ever watched a mouse scampering around inside an exercise wheel, you might have wondered if you could drive a wheel electrically, in a similar way, with something that pushes against the inside of the rim. A company called GeoOrbital has been developing an ingenious mechanical equivalent that can be used to power conventional bikes—and here's a simplified illustration of how it works. It has a motorized drive roller (red) that presses against the inner rim, powered by a battery pack (orange) that sits snugly inside the wheel. Two guide rollers (blue) mounted on a tensioned framework (green) take the place of the conventional arrangement of spokes. According to GeoOrbital, you can fit one of its wheels to a normal bike in just 60 seconds.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Act defines a "low speed electric bicycle" as a two or three wheeled vehicle with fully operable pedals, a top speed when powered solely by the motor under 20 mph (32 km/h) and an electric motor that produces less than 750 W (1.01 hp). The Act authorizes the Consumer Product Safety Commission to protect people who ride low-speed electric vehicles by issuing necessary safety regulations.[63] The rules for e-bikes on public roads, sidewalks, and pathways are under state jurisdiction, and vary.
Different gears and ranges of gears are appropriate for different people and styles of cycling. Multi-speed bicycles allow gear selection to suit the circumstances: a cyclist could use a high gear when cycling downhill, a medium gear when cycling on a flat road, and a low gear when cycling uphill. In a lower gear every turn of the pedals leads to fewer rotations of the rear wheel. This allows the energy required to move the same distance to be distributed over more pedal turns, reducing fatigue when riding uphill, with a heavy load, or against strong winds. A higher gear allows a cyclist to make fewer pedal turns to maintain a given speed, but with more effort per turn of the pedals.
It’s a topic that many eMTBers are interested in: fast charging. What has long been a reality with electric cars is now also being partly improved for ebikes with high amperage chargers. Bosch has presented a 6A charger this year that can charge a 500 Wh battery in 3 hours, more than a third faster than the standard charger. The new benchmark next year, however, will probably be the 10A charger presented by Haibike and BMZ. It is claimed to be capable of charging a 630 Wh battery in just 1.5 hours.

The bicycle was recognized by 19th-century feminists and suffragists as a "freedom machine" for women. American Susan B. Anthony said in a New York World interview on February 2, 1896: "I think it has done more to emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood."[74]:859 In 1895 Frances Willard, the tightly laced president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, wrote A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle, with Some Reflections by the Way, a 75-page illustrated memoir praising "Gladys", her bicycle, for its "gladdening effect" on her health and political optimism.[72] Willard used a cycling metaphor to urge other suffragists to action.[72]

Like most electric bikes, the Rad Wagon is also fairly heavy, weighing 72 pounds. The last drawback is that it comes in only one frame size (which I imagine helps to keep costs lower) that fits rider heights between 5 foot 2 inches and 6 foot 2 inches. My 6 foot 4 husband, however, can ride the bike just fine, so there’s some wiggle room to this range.
A new European product safety standard EN 15194 will be published in 2009. EN 15194 contains several new requirements for ebikes to be sold in European Union and European Economic Area, including weight and voltage limitations. EN 15194 also defines a specific name for EU approved electrically-assisted cycles, EPAC - "Electrically Pedal Assisted Cycle".
According to Utah Code 41-6a-102 (17) an electric assisted bicycle is equipped with an electric motor with a power output of not more than 750 watts and is not capable of further assistance at a speed of more than 20 MPH, or at 28 MPH while pedaling and using a speedometer. New laws specifically exclude electric pedal-assisted bicycles as "motorized vehicles" and bicycles are permitted on all state land (but not necessarily on Indian Reservations, nor restrictive municipalities, such as in Park City Code 10-1-4.5 2) if the motor is not more than 750 Watts, and the assistance shuts off at 20 mph (Utah Traffic Code 53-3-202-17-a 1). E-bikes sold in Utah are required to have a sticker that details the performance capacity. Children under 14 can operate an electric bicycle if accompanied by a parent/guardian, but children under 8 may not. (Utah code 41-6a-1115.5) No license, registration, or insurance is required by the State but some municipalities may require these measures (Salt Lake City and Provo require registration).
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The time or distance an electric bike battery will run between chargings is impossible to judge with much accuracy. There are too many variables: terrain, speed, rider weight, bike load (shopping, kids, luggage), and more. However, we can make a few generalizations about an e-bike’s recharge time and overall working life. These generalizations should be used for comparison purposes only.
The Super Commuter is very aptly named. The 350w Bosch motor will help you sustain speeds of up to 28mph, and the burly, 2.4-inch wide, Schwalbe Super Moto-X 650b tires will keep you secure on even the roughest city streets, and Shimano Deore hydraulic brakes provide ample stopping power. Fenders provide welcome protection from road spray so you arrive at your destination fresh, integrated lights are critical for post-sunset riding, and a side-view mirror hanging on the left side of the handlebar gives a great view of traffic around you. After all, you can ride at the speed of urban traffic on the Super Commuter.
When it comes to electric bikes, consumers have lots of choices. So finding an electric bike to meet your needs won’t be hard. Today, we are going to take a deeper look at three of the most popular types of electric bikes on the American market and many of the benefits of owning and using an electric bike. Each of these ebikes has something different to offer as you will find out below. So if you are looking to purchase a new electric bike in the near future, you just might want to pay close attention to the information provided...
In Norway, e-bikes are classified as ordinary bicycles, according to the Vehicle Regulation (kjøretøyforskriften) § 4-1, 5g. Hence, e-bikes are not registered in the Vehicle Registry, and there is no demand for a license to drive them. Still, there are constraints on the bicycle construction. The maximum nominal motor power output can be no more than 250 watts and the maximum performance speed of the vehicle when the engine is running is 25 km per hour (15 mph).[40] A function that reduces motor power when vehicle speed exceeds 25 km per hour is mandatory. However, if the motor is not running, the e-bike, or any other bike, answer only to the constraints of the ordinary speed limits.